As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
With recent advances in network technology and improved affordability of networking devices, information handling system users are increasingly implementing networks (e.g., local areas networks or LANs) that utilize wireless transmissions (e.g., wireless fidelity or “WI-FI”) and wire-line transmissions in their homes and/or businesses. For example, users may implement a home or business network including an information handling system, one or more wireless-capable network devices, and a wireless access point communicatively coupled to the information handling system and network devices. Such a network may allow an information handling system (or a user thereof) to communicate with the one or more network devices via the wireless access point or vice versa.
However, despite the increasing popularity of home and business networking systems, configuration complexity of such systems has prevented widespread acceptance. While network installation and setup for experienced users has been greatly simplified with setup wizards and advances in usability features included in operating systems, network configuration remains a difficult challenge for many users, particularly home consumers. These configuration challenges lead to negative customer experience and numerous technical support calls. For example, one company has reported that it receives in excess of 20,000 technical support calls per day related to digital home products, the majority attributable to wireless access point installation and setup.
One difficulty with conventional approaches to configuring a number of devices is that the user must often navigate a number screens and/or dialog boxes to successfully configure a network. In addition, a user may be required to run a plurality of setup programs, which may add to the user's confusion. For example, using traditional approaches, if a user desires to wirelessly couple an information handling system, a wireless access point, and a printer, the user must often run three different setup programs—one for each of the information handling system, the wireless access point, and the printer. Also, in some traditional approaches, a user must connect the information handling system to the wireless access point via a wired connection in order to configure the devices, which may be counterintuitive for a novice user.